Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Depressing Trade Stat of the Day

Recent White House visitor records show that President Obama and his officials have scheduled meetings with the likes of Change to Win union boss Anna Burger 32 times, SEIU boss Andy Stern 28 times, AFL-CIO boss Richard Trumka eight times and ultra-protectionist United Steelworkers boss Leo Gerard eight times. And his U.S. Trade Representative, Ron Kirk? Well, he merited a mere two visits.

Yikes. Now granted, it's all but certain that all (or even most) of these meetings didn't focus on trade, and I do know that the President and his USTR met at least once outside the Oval Office (to golf and discuss tariffs on Chinese tires!), but still, them's some skewed numbers.